Lead-acid cells with lightweight, corrosion-protected, flexible-graphite grids

Lightweight grids for lead-acid battery plates are prepared from flexible graphite sheets of mass density 1.1 g cm−3. The grids are coated with a lead layer followed by a corrosion-resistant polyaniline layer by electrodeposition. The grids are about 70% lighter than conventional lead-acid battery grids. The suitability of these grids are evaluated by cyclic voltammetric experiments. Lead-acid cells are assembled with positive and negative plates made from these lightweight grids. The specific energy of the lead-acid cells is found to be ca. 40 Wh kg−1 at the C/5 rate.